DUBOSE, Lou(is H.) 1948-

PERSONAL:

Born March 3, 1948; married Jeanne Goka. Education: Earned a master's degree in Latin American studies.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Austin, TX. Office—Texas Observer, 307 West 7th St., Austin, TX 78701.

CAREER:

Austin Chronicle, Austin, TX, politics editor; Texas Observer, Austin, editor, 1987—.

WRITINGS:

(With Molly Ivins) Shrub: The Short but Happy Life of George W. Bush, Random House (New York, NY), 2000.

(With Molly Ivins) Bushwhacked: Life in George W. Bush's America, Random House (New York, NY), 2003.

(With Jan Reid and Carl Cannon) Boy Genius: Karl Rove, the Brains behind the Remarkable Political Triumph of George W. Bush, PublicAffairs (New York, NY), 2003.

(With Jan Reid) The Hammer, PublicAffairs (New York, NY), 2004.

Contributor to periodicals, including Nation, Texas Monthly, Washington Post, Globe and Mail, Liberty, Texas, and Vindicator.

SIDELIGHTS:

A longtime editor at the Texas Observer, which covers the Texas state legislature, Lou Dubose had a front row seat to observe the rise of George W. Bush. He has parlayed that into studies of Bush's performance, both as governor and president, and a biography of his chief political strategist Karl Rove. More recently, Dubose has turned his attention to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, another Texan driving much of the national agenda of the Republican Party.

At the start of the 2000 presidential campaign, Dubose teamed up with well-known liberal columnist Molly Ivins to write Shrub: The Short but Happy Political Life of George W. Bush. While many Americans at least knew Bush's name, thanks to his father, few were aware of his record as governor of Texas, and the authors set out to correct this, focusing on Bush's legislative proposals and administrative regulations in areas such as pollution control, educational reform, and worker safety. As political scientist Brendan O'Connor explained in the Australian Journal of Politics and History, "It is this concern for the details of governing that is the driving force behind Ivins and Dubose's Shrub. They suggest the best way to judge a politician is by closely examining their record. This is underdone in much current political journalism." Both Ivins and Dubose are proud liberals, and like political biographies throughout history, this one drew divergent reactions from different sides of the political spectrum. For John Nichols, writing in the liberal Progressive, "Molly Ivins and Lou Dubose have written the best damn book of the 2000 election season.… This tale of the presumptive Republican Presidential nominee's political foibles is so thoroughly reported, so well written, and so consistently convincing that a casual reading could turn even the most radical critic of the Vice President into a rabid Al Gore partisan." In contrast, Charlotte Hays concluded in the conservative National Review that "the book is so predictable that it doesn't really lay a glove on Bush. Indeed, ambivalent conservatives will find it a convincing brief for Bush." A more neutral view came from Booklist contributor Mary Carroll, who said, "No tabloid-style revelations here; just solid (though partisan) analysis of governance issues that should become important as campaign 2000 continues."

Dubose and Ivins followed up with a study of Bush's first years as president: Bushwhacked: Life in George W. Bush's America. This time, the authors interspersed stories of ordinary Americans with a look at the policies of the Bush administration, showing the impact of the latter on the former. "Using an old journalistic tactic, Ivins and Dubose cut repeatedly between descriptions of the rich, cosseted men in the Bush circle—born into vast wealth—and the straightforward, irrefutable stories of poor people hammered yet further since Bush came to power," noted New Statesman contributor Johann Hari. Booklist contributor Ilene Cooper commented that "unlike some partisan books on both sides … these authors have another agenda.… [T]hey show what the Bush domestic program has meant to individual citizens in particular and the populace in general."

While policy lies at the heart of Shrub and Bushwhacked, pure politics is the theme of Boy Genius: Karl Rove, the Brains behind the Remarkable Political Triumph of George W. Bush, which Dubose wrote in conjunction with Jan Reid and Carl Cannon. The authors "offer smart political judgments and lovely anecdotes, particularly in their appropriately irreverent chapters on Texas' political whackiness," according to veteran political journalist E. J. Dionne in the American Prospect. But that is not all. They also offer a portrait of a uniquely talented political consultant, who saw Bush's potential long before the future president himself did and who has done much to shape the fortunes of the Republican Party and the entire national agenda. As Dionne noted later in that same review, "what makes Rove interesting is not his ruthlessness but rather his strategic vision and ability to execute. When Rove began plying his trade in Texas, it was a Democratic state. When he left for Washington in 2000, Republicans, most of them former clients of Rove's firm, controlled almost everything." Boy Genius describes, according to the authors, the curious, but highly effective, partnership between Rove, a self-described nerd and political wonk, and Bush, the intellectually lazy frat boy with the famous name and outgoing personality. While Rove engineered the hardball tactics and political dirty tricks, Bush largely stayed above the fray. Their partnership has continued into the White House, where Rove has the kind of power rarely given to political operatives, a not entirely benign state of affairs, according to Dubose and his fellow authors.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Prospect, July 17, 2000, Jeff Danziger, review of Bushwhacked: Life in George W. Bush's America, p. 46; April, 2003, E. J. Dionne, review of Boy Genius: Karl Rove, the Brains behind the Remarkable Political Triumph of George W. Bush, p. 52.

Australian Journal of Politics and History, December, 2001, Brendan O'Connor, review of Shrub: The Short but Happy Life of George W. Bush, p. 594.

Booklist, February 15, 2000, Mary Carroll, review of Shrub, p. 1050; October 1, 2000, Candace Smith, review of Shrub, p. 367; August, 2003, Ilene Cooper, review of Bushwhacked, p. 1923.

Business Week, March 13, 2000, "Company Man?"

Economist, February 22, 2003, "The Limits of Spin; American Politics."

Kirkus Reviews, August 1, 2003, review of Bushwhacked, p. 1004.

Library Journal, March 1, 2000, Michael A. Genovese, review of Shrub, p. 110; October 15, 2000, Sally G. Waters, review of Shrub, p. 125.

Los Angeles Times Book Review, March 14, 2004, Mark Hertsgaard, "Chapter and Verse on the Need for Regime Change," p. 4.

Mother Jones, September-October, 2003, Colleen O'Brien, review of Bushwhacked, p. 96.

National Review, April 17, 2000, Charlotte Hays, "This Bush Has Thorns."

New Statesman, January 12, 2004, Johann Hari, review of Bushwhacked, p. 55.

New York Review of Books, February 24, 2000, Lars-Erik Nelson, "Legacy," p. 4; May 1, 2003, Elizabeth Drew, "The Enforcer," p. 14.

New York Times Book Review, February 18, 2000, Michiko Kakutani, "Books of the Times; A Texas-Style Bashing: Double-Teaming 'Dubya,'" p. 53; March 5, 2000, Peter Applebome, "Heir Apparent?," p. 30.

Progressive, May, 2000, John Nichols, review of Shrub, p. 41.*

Publishers Weekly, February 7, 2000, review of Shrub, p. 79; August 4, 2003, review of Bushwhacked, p. 68.

Times Literary Supplement, November 3, 2000, James Bowman, "Not as Thick as He Pretends?"